


Gingerbread madness

by Echo_star



Series: 12 days of X-mas oneshots; Underground Edition [11]
Category: The Gifted (TV 2017)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-22
Updated: 2017-12-22
Packaged: 2019-02-18 06:08:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,658
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13094037
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Echo_star/pseuds/Echo_star
Summary: caspian and his little cohorts convince Clarice to help them with their gingerbread train for the competition





	Gingerbread madness

Clarice shouldn’t have been surprised when a little hand knocked on the doorjamb. Today is the start of Caitlin’s Christmas project for the kids; a gingerbread competition for the children currently at the underground. 

"Yeah?" She calls to her guest. Caspian pulls back the curtain and jumped on the bed with her. Clarice shut the book she'd previously been reading and sat up in bed.

"Can you help us please?”Cas asks holding up a gingerbread train kit. Clarice looks at the box dubiously then to the smile on the boys face. 

“No, it’s too hard.” She bemoans, before pausing. "Wait, who’s us?”

"You can come in now." He giggles as his small companions peak through the doorway.

Clarice looks between Caspian's friends, smiling as she motions them into the room. Cas grins and pulls a handful of small candy canes out of his pocket.

“I smell a trap.” The woman says eying the children cautiously. 

Dominique, the young girl smiles as she whispers softly. "Cas said you like candy canes.” 

Caspian tugged his friends to join them on the bed. "We agreed you can have the candy canes and any lollies we don’t use if you help us.”

With the incentives laid out and three little face peering eagerly at her, she agrees. 

“Can we build it in your room?” Sam asks from where he’s half hidden behind Caspian.

"Ah, sure. But why?" Clarice asks snagging a candy cane from the pile and unwrapping it. 

"It's a contest! No one's supposed to see it until it's done.” Caspian tells her, excitement lighting up his face. 

"Okay sure. When's the judging?" 

"It's on Christmas Eve!" The three children chorus before excitedly jinxing each other. 

Clarice smiles as she watches them. For a while she was concerned about Caspian, it took him awhile to fit in, so she’s relieved to see him having fun with his friends.

"Three days, okay. We can do that." The children nod happily as they begin chattering amongst themselves and making plans for how awesome it will be.

"So what candy do we need to hoard before they're all gone?" Clarice interjects her amusement lighting her face, as the kids attempt to speak over each other. 

"Gumdrops, pepper mints, M&M's, and kisses." Caspian lists off his fingers, checking with the other two. 

As they all nod in agreement, Clarice pushes everyone off the bed, lightly stretching. ”Okay kiddos, let's go." 

Caspian puts the train kit on her nightstand. "We need a plate to build it on too." He says as an afterthought. 

They convene in her doorway, the two kids sticking tightly to Caspian's side. 

"I'll take care of that, don't worry. I'll also get the kisses." Clarice says. 

"We will get the M&M's, peppermints, and gumdrops." 

"I know where gumdrops are!" Dominique pipes up.

"Okay, meet back here in half an hour." 

"Half an hour." The golden eyed boy responds putting his hand out. The kids pile theirs on top, so Clarice puts hers in too. They all chorus a cheer. 

"Thirty minutes on the dot." She repeats. Then they depart her room each heading in different directions to fulfill their individual tasks. 

Clarice goes to the kitchen area, having seen Marcos and John stash bags of kisses in the top cupboards in an attempt to hide them from a heavily pregnant Lorna. She creates a portal, because the cupboard is way above her head, and sticks her arm through. She grins as the flesh of her palm touches the plastic of the bag and with a tug she starts to pull it through the sphere she currently held open one handed.

"What're you doing?" She whirls and, in shock, nearly shuts the portal on her arm. John's hand darts forward, clamping on her upper arm, and drags it through the portal before it disappears. The bag of Hershey's kisses in her hand tells him exactly what she was doing. 

"Did Lorna ask you to get those?" 

"Nope." She mutters not so slyly hiding the bag behind her back. He reaches around her body and easily plucks the bag from her grasp. 

"What are these for?" He asks holding the bag aloft between them. 

"They-" Clarice grabs for the bag, John evades her hands holding the bag above her head, "are-", she jumps for it and misses, "-for Cas' groups gingerbread train." She huffs exasperatedly. 

John looks amused. "You do know the gingerbread contest was exclusively for the children, correct?" 

"They bribed me into helping them." She sighs. 

"Lemme guess, candy canes?" He asks pointedly. 

"He knows my weakness." She groans. 

"Everyone knows your weakness." John laughs. "This does explain why they asked me for candy canes a couple of minutes ago." 

"Enabler!" Clarice hisses accusatorially, wrestling the bag from him and dodging his hands as he attempts to get it back. 

"Clarice." John scolds, using his dad voice. 

"You're not getting this back, so quit while you're behind." The purple haired woman states. 

John sighs heavily.  
"Just don't let Lorna see them, don't tell her about them, and, most importantly, don't eat them all." He turned and starts walking away. 

"Are you alright?" She calls, quickly grabbing a metal platter from under the counter, following after him concerned. 

John pauses, turning slightly to face her, catching Clarice off guard as she crashes into him. John reaches out to steady her, moving them to the side out of the way for a passerby.

“I’m fine.” He says releasing his grasp on her arm. 

“Really? Cuz you look terrible.” 

"Excuse me?" John chuckles. 

“Your basically a zombie,” she says, cupping his cheek, lightly tracing the dark circles under his left eye, “you don’t sleep and when you do, it’s one of those rare moments your not running around.” 

"I've got things to do, responsibilities to fulfill-" 

"You don't have to do that all by yourself, though. You have Marcos, Shatter, Lorna, Trader, Sage and me, delegate it's what we're here for." She butts in, cutting him off. 

"You're helping the kids." John points out. 

"Yeah and before that I was sitting on my bed for hours on end reading a book. You could've asked me to do something, anything. I was available all day." 

"I promise I will sleep soon, okay?” He presses a quick kiss to her forehead before continuing down the hallway.

The Korean woman rolls her eyes, muttering under her breath. “Right. Of course you will.” Before going back to her room, having gathered her supplies. 

The kids were sitting on her bed when she arrived, a small selection of candy in a pile between them. 

“So, are you all ready to make the yummiest gingerbread train you can imagine?”

"Yeah!” They all cheer. 

"Have you got the rest of our stuff?” Caspian asks.

"Yes sir, I do." She replies. 

"We're gonna win the competition. It's going to be the best gingerbread train ever!" Sam giggles.

The next three days pass by in a blur of gingerbread cut outs, piped icing and an assortment of candies. Clarice awoke on Christmas Eve to the smell of gingerbread, that train permeated her entire room, and Caspian snuggling into her side. 

Carefully she extracts herself from bed and, after checking that the train is still stable, goes to the bathroom. On her way back she pauses by the office, looking inside her heart races as she sees John lying on the floor. Clarice pushes the door open running and dropping to his side. Her hands search frantically for his pulse, finding it she heaves a sigh of relief. 

He was passed out on the floor of the office, having collapsed from, presumably, overworking himself. Clarice portals to her room to find Caspian waking up in her bed. 

"What happened?" He asks yawning. 

"You fell asleep here last night once everyone else left." She tells him gathering up her pillow and blanket. 

"You didn't kick me out?" 

"I don't mind Cas, besides you're warm." She replies. "I'll be back in a minute." With her bedding under her arm she opens a portal back to John and jumps through. 

Back in the office Clarice decides that she couldn't even begin to move him to the couch. Instead she lifts his head up, high enough to slide her pillow under it. John leans into her touch and sighs when she comfortingly runs her fingers through his hair. Pulling back she tosses the blanket over him and pulls it up under his chin. Fully satisfied that John isn't entirely uncomfortable she leaves the office, going back to her room. 

On the way down she sees Shatter, who she knows is one of the judges. Clarice jogs to him.  
"Hey Shatter," she calls out, he paused mid-step and waits until she is by his side. 

"Morning Clarice, how can I help you?" He asks with an easy smile on his face. 

"What time does the judging for the gingerbread contest start?" 

"You're helpin' Caspians’ team, right?" Shatter questions as he escorts her to her room. 

"Yeah. They bribed me.” Clarice responds.

"Candy canes?" He questions. Clarice nods affirmatively, laughing. 

“The judging is at 2pm." Shatter tells her smiling as he leaves her at her bedroom door.

When she pushes back the curtain she sees Caspian roll over pulling his blanket fully around him. Clarice grins and jumps on the bed pulling him into her arms and tickling him awake. 

"Come on kiddo, time to get up." 

"Why?" He pouts throwing his blanket over her head engulfing them in their own world. 

"Judging starts at 2-" 

"We're done. We finished yesterday, I wanna stay asleep." He proposes. 

"We need to eat breakfast and I've gotta see if Lorna has anything that she needs me to do." 

"I don't have anything to do, I can sleep." He compromises. 

"You should go find Sam and Dominique. I’m sure they are excited for this afternoon.” Clarice tempts, knowing his soft spot for his newfound friends. 

Caspian smiles, "Yeah, alright.” He yawns, scrambling up from the bed. He turns to look at her, insecurity flooding his face as he looks at his feet whispering. "I haven’t shown them what I can do yet. I’m scared they won’t like me or will be scared of me if I shift.”

"Hey," she coos gently, making him look at her. "I’m pretty sure both Dominique and Sam will love it if you shift. Give them a chance, they know what it’s like not being normal. If it helps, I love that your not normal and what you can do.” 

Caspian lifts his fingers and strokes the violet mark under her right eye.  
"I love that you're different too." He whispers, his insecurities fading as he asks her to portal him to the common area so he can find his friends. 

Grinning Clarice creates the portal, watching as he exuberantly bounces through. 

When he leaves Clarice changes her clothes before joining Marcos and Lorna to hand out breakfast rations. 

Clarice checks the time, realises it’s 10 minutes before the contest so begins searching for Caspian. Despite not seeing him all day, she’s heard from a couple of people that there’s quite the spectacle outside as children play with the kid who can become different animals. She doesn’t get far before she hears his voice calling to her. 

“Come on, come on Clarice!" He runs up to her, tugging on her clothes. “We have to go!" 

"I know. Stop tugging." The green eyed woman remarks untangling his grip from her shirt, then she opens a portal to her room and Caspian hops through. He steadily lifts the platter and walks back through the still open portal. 

Once he is back by her side she takes the platter from him and he guides her to the Christmas tree where his friends are waiting for the judging to take place. 

A table was set up displaying all the gingerbread creations the children had put together and decorated. Lorna walks by as Clarice sets their train down by a house with pink icing. 

"Where'd you find Hershey's kisses?" The green haired woman asks plucking one from their display and eating it. 

"Uh-," Clarice quickly clasps her hand around Caspian's mouth as it opens. 

"Clarice," John calls at that moment sparing her from having to answer. Instead both women turn towards him. John sees the wrapper in Lorna's hand and the miffed look on her face then promptly changed direction. Lorna took off waddling after him. 

"She took our decoration." CD pouts. 

"It's okay, I have another one I was saving," she responds as she quickly replaces the missing kiss.

"Are you three okay to take it from here?” 

As they all nod, she reminds them to get a number before walking away to let them do their own thing. 

John smiles as she approaches, passing the kids on her way to him.  
"Have a nice nap?" She asks as she came to stand beside him. John rolled his eyes in response.

"No need to gloat, but yes. Thanks for your pillow and blanket. I've already returned it to your room." He didn't tell her how he enjoyed her scent surrounding him when he awoke. 

"You need to take better care of yourself,” her voice falls as emotion steals clogs her throat, “when I saw you on the floor I thought....” she trails off looking away. 

"Hey," John steps closer, blocking her view of the room. "I’m sorry I scared you.” He says lightly his hands coming up to grip her waist. John leans in closer so his lips brush her ear. "I promise to not push myself that hard again.” He whispers. 

Clarice leans into him reassured, he feels safe. She’s about to respond, when she sees Lorna, very much pregnant and very much annoyed shuffling towards them. 

“Lorna’s coming, you better go less you face her wrath,” she teased. 

John groaned. "I will see you after the judging." He remarks before striding purposefully in the opposite direction of oncoming Lorna.

Smiling, Clarice makes her way to the small group of spectators watching the judgement of the gingerbread. There’s trains, trees, houses and sleighs and the candy is an assortment of whatever they had been able to find. 

Clarice nods encouragingly as Caspian's group give a small introduction for the train. She claps as the kids finish. 

She leans back into John as he joins her, having escaped Lorna a second time, whilst the judges determine the winner. Clarice leans back into his chest as his arms curl around her waist and his chin rests on her shoulder. 

When the judges announce that the winner is Team Four Clarice groans. John sighs as the kids faces fall when they realize they've lost. They both smile however as Team Six, Clarice's team, goes to congratulate the winners. 

All the spectators laugh as the kids break their hard work, sharing pieces of their gingerbread creations with the other children and adults. Caspian, Dominique and Sam run up to the pair with bits of gingerbread for them to eat. 

John grins releasing Clarice and accepting an proffered piece from Sam. "I’m sorry you didn’t win. I thought your train was pretty amazing.” 

“That’s okay. We had lots of fun making it.” The little boy smiles.

“Thank you for helping us.” Caspian mumbles as he gives Clarice a hug. He grins when his friend join in, two more pairs of little arms twining themselves around her waist. 

Clarice and John watch as the kids run off to play with the others, the three staying close to each other as they play. 

John looks back at her smiling, “I think you made two new little friends.” 

Clarice smiled as she watched the kids play. "Yeah, they were pretty awesome.” 

Together they left the kids playing, Clarice creating a portal outside. The couple strolled hand in hand, avoiding anywhere that may result in Lorna finding them.


End file.
